Bought.... August 19, 2018
17,236.... yes miles!!!
Started building a 1954 Panhead awhile back... realized it will take awhile and since money grows on trees I decided to pick up this gem to tide me over... so to speak. It took me a long winded three seconds to decide once I walked into the garage. I then spent about two hours trying to talk myself out of it but that did not work. Thus it was a done deal without even hearing it run.
This is now the mascot bike for this website... flamingsteel. This bike has flames on the handle bar grips, front fender, tanks, back fender, brake pedal, shifter pedal, running boards, and seat.
Here is the speedo the day I brought her into the studio.
This bike has two what I consider two major perks. The first is the speedo is in mph. Pure American blood.... I love old school math. The second is the engine is not painted black. A motorcycle should never have it's "soul" painted black. A coat of wrinkly plastic covering the beautiful engine is a crime. On top of that once the bike gets old the paint looks like shite....
Now even though it is "bugged" I plan to clean that up down the road.
First or second ride up to the Vulture Garage in Spences Bridge. Hope to Spences Bridge, man what a ride that road is. Bike ran like a dream. Don't want to ruin the lines of this but could really use a fender rack for road trips. At least until I get something dependable on the road like my Panhead with saddle bags.
Course had to buy a bike jack... Amazon... made in China... $200 delivered to my door. You get what you pay for of course but still this seems to be good value and is made well enough that I can modify it up to a better safety standard. I do have to take it out of the wheeled base in order to fit it under the bike being so low. Of course I don't trust the no name jack nor the steel it is made of but it werks.
Where the arrow is pointing I would place sized spacer blocks in there after getting the jack up to height. That way if the pot metal bolt were to break... one review said it did.... then the jack would not drop right down. Instead it would hit the spacer blocks.
A great thing to remember with Harley's.... A funny noise is a money noise!!! Thus the second I heard the strange vibrating sound from the back wheel I took note.... hit the brakes again and sure enough strange noise.. Thus I raced home as fast as I could without using the back brakes... ok just kidding... But did take it home to look closer.
Sure enough the one brake pad had the last of the padding vanish. Luckily I paid attention or I would have been paying cash for a new rotor. Not a scratch in it which tells me the padding must have came off the second it made the first noise. Old parts out... new parts in and back on the road.
You seriously can't beat live/work.... bike, welder, couch and fridge all within 20 or 30 ft.